Money talks: The role of finance in social work education and practice

Abstract

Finance is crucial to every aspect of social care, yet has traditionally been neglected in social work training and practice. Despite the overwhelming importance of budgetary issues for the provision of social services, few workers understand how the system works or how their work is financed. The result is that they continue in ignorance, operating without an awareness of the financial context in which they work, lacking the financial skills to move successfully into management positions and failing to challenge a chaotic and anachronistic system which undermines local democracy as a deliberate tool of central control. Against this background, this paper highlights the importance of a financial overview for social work educators and practitioners, exploring the factors which contribute to the widespread inability to engage with financial issues and calling for a greater emphasis on this topic in social work training. In the process, it builds on a recently published introduction to local government finance which is designed specifically to counter the anti-financial tendencies inherent in social work, providing a detailed but easily comprehensible handbook for managers, practitioners and members of the general public alike. To place these issues in context, the paper begins with a personal account of working in a department experiencing financial difficulties.

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